Minnesota suburbs push back against ICE's warehouse search
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The Department of Homeland Security has been scouring industrial parks nationwide for empty warehouses to hold immigration detainees.
Why it matters: A lack of detention space has been a bottleneck on the Trump administration's push for mass deportations — and has led to severe overcrowding and deteriorating conditions at ICE's holding facility at Fort Snelling, the Star Tribune has reported.
- Congress has given DHS billions to spend on potential holding sites nationwide — but so far, all DHS has found in the Twin Cities is pushback from neighbors.
Zoom in: The owners of a Woodbury warehouse property told city officials last month they would not sell or lease to the federal government, which wanted to turn the vacant building into a detention center.
- In Shakopee, DFL state Rep. Brad Tabke said neighbors' opposition scuttled plans for a facility to hold 1,500 detainees. (The property owner hasn't confirmed this publicly, KSTP reported.)
The big picture: DHS has faced similar pushback in Maryland, Texas, New York, and Virginia, where anti-ICE demonstrators have packed county meeting rooms to protest detention expansions.
- DHS has already spent more than $170 million on properties in Maryland and Arizona, according to Bloomberg.
- State-run sites like Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" have brought hundreds more beds online — but also legal pushback.
What we're watching: DHS officials have recently been pushing for more cooperation from Minnesota's county jails — including, possibly, holding more detainees.
- For more bed space, DHS is also leaning on private prison contractors like CoreCivic, which is currently spending $1 million to renovate a shuttered prison in western Minnesota.
Go deeper: Resistance erupts over ICE's warehouse buying spree